Skin Inflammation or Cancer ?

by Rosa
(Chicago, IL, USA)

She was just a normal adolescent girl, playful, vibrant, out going. Never in her life would she have imagined that you would be a victim of cancer.

She had no poor medical history so when her leg was hit by a bed during a stampede as students were rioting in school, she never gave it much thought not until the leg got so swollen she could not wear pants.

At first she thought it was just a normal bruise and when she tried ointments and it never got well. She decided to seek medical attention.

The swollen leg was not even painful. Once she got to the hospital the doctors asked her what had happened and she said that she had been hit by a bed in school.

Her best judgment was that she might have dislocated the now so swollen leg. But she was never and could have not imagined the words that came out of the doctored mouth after he had recommended a battery of tests.

“You have got bone marrow cancer” were the words that the doctor told her before her parent. At first it was disbelieve. How could she have gotten it? Why her?

She was an only child, and the mother was obviously questioning, why her only daughter. With time and as with most cancer patients, she accepted her situation.

The doctor went

ahead to explain to her that the cancer had started in the foot and was slowly spreading upwards towards the leg joint.

Fortunately that accident that triggered the swell and that is what had saved her life. If it had gone undetected the cancer would have spread up to her liver, kidney, and other body parts making it impossible to save her life.

She had to be amputated. The cancer had spread all the way up till to her knee. She underwent the surgery on the 13th September 2008.

When she came out of the theatre her mother was there besides her bed. She had come out alive, albeit with just one leg.

The healing process begun with chemotherapy. She lost her hair. Luckily for her she is a strong girl and the support from friends and family really go her going.

She has since healed well, and has gone back to school, though she had to change school and go to one that is near her home. She is counting her blessings everyday as a young cancer survivor.